This a record of what is currently used by SaVRC, it has found to work and uses an approach accepted by the volunteers. This means it is primarily email based backed up by face to face / telephone when necessary. While it works the process requires specific regular manual intervention and oversight by the repair cafe coordinator, which processes based on WhatsApp or internet automation technology could considerably reduce.
Repair Cafe Roles
The repair cafe has a number of defined roles who carry out tasks largely without references to the wider volunteers.
Coordinator – ensure everything is in place for each repair cafe, liaises with FoE / insurers, books venues, arranges set-up of venue, arranges supply of paperwork, oversees availability of volunteers.
Refreshments – each venue has a person in overall charge of refreshments, who decides what / how refreshments are provided on the day.
Publicity – looks after Facebook posts / sharing as part of overall Climate Action Stokesley and Villages publicity activities.
Treasurer – keeps accounts and normally collects / pays in donations after each repair cafe after covering venue and volunteer expenses.
Venue Champions – either local to or part of venue management, assist in setup and substitute when coordinator unavailable.
Repair theme leaders – some repair themes have one person who acts a lead, helping to make sure correct skills are available for each repair cafe and communicating specifically with the repair cafe to look for ways to make the repair theme more fun and more impact. For example sewing has run training in certain skills as part of repair cafes.
Many repair cafe tasks have been delegated and individuals both in roles and without roles step up to make sure the repair cafes run smoothly.
New Volunteers
The recruitment of volunteers is handled by the publicity process, once volunteer information has been obtained, via face to face interaction, via phone, via email, via paper volunteer form or via online Google form.
New volunteers are contacted directly with:
- an email which explains the repair cafe model, our processes, how they would fit into the repair cafe, links to our web pages, telling them to get back with any questions and if not already spoken to then asked to suggest when it would be ok to have a telephone chat
- a conversation either face to face or by phone to chat through how the repair cafe works, what its like, what they would like to do and then given time to ask questions, plus encouraged that repair cafes are not complicated and that you get the real feeling for it once you are involved.
- Be clear about:
- what the repair cafe is (free/competent/volunteering/collaborative)
- what it isn’t (charging/professional/salaried/repair shop/guarantees/lone genius)
- what they should expect, i.e. the unexpected, it is not possible to predict exactly what will happen at any one repair cafe, as it depends on who turns up on the day. So both number and type of repairs will vary
- what they should not expect, repair shop, everybody else to repair experts, but we are all learning together
- Be flexible about the role the new recruit will have:
- when they first attend – just watch, float around helping, or take up their final role (repairer / front of house / refreshments)
- but also long term, if they are not sure they can do a particular role, then either encourage them on the basis they will not be left along but supported, or alternatively suggest they just come along to see what the role involves
- Be clear about:
Once this process has been completed then each volunteer should have their details recorded on a Google volunteer form and will be included in all subsequent emailings.
Volunteer Communications
Many of the volunteers are very committed to the repair cafe and its continuing success, but have lots else going on in their lives, so can be relied on to turn up fully ready for the intense 3-4 hours which each repair cafe is, they don’t want or need to know what is happening behind the scenes for rest of the time between each repair cafe. However SaVRC while minimising heartbeat communications tries to ensure that all the volunteers are fully aware of the impact the repair cafe is having, and changes that affect the way the repair cafe is operating.
Availability Email
While repair cafes are scheduled at least a year in advance and all volunteers are made aware of the dates as soon as they agreed they are not asked to sign-up to attend this far in advance. Sending out availability emails every 2 months has been found to most effective, as people are happy to commit 1-2 months ahead and plans don’t change that a large number of volunteers need to cancel.
So after just the December, February, April, June, August, October repair cafes have happened all volunteers are asked for their availability for the next 2 repair cafes (i.e. in December asked for January – Swainby and February – Stokesley). The email replies are then used to keep a running total of who is available.
3 weeks before each repair cafe the number of volunteers and their split of roles is checked. If gaps are seen then volunteers who have not replied or replied to say they weren’t sure are contacted to see if they are in fact available – with a focus on roles were the number who said they are available is too low.
Plan Email
One week before each cafe an email is sent out to ALL volunteers detailing the arrangements for the specific cafe. The email includes links to all the safety documentation, a list of who has confirmed they can attend with encouragement that anybody else available is welcome and should confirm by email, details of publicity asking people to share it widely. The email highlights any changes to the processes since the last cafe – new arrangements (front of house, new repair arrangements i.e. PAT testing separate), focus for the day.
Climate Action Stokesley and Villages 